June 1 – James 2:14-26

Main Focus: Faith without Works. Faith that is not accompanied by action is useless and dead, unable to save.

James leads off with a question in verse 14, “What good…?” This form of the question indicates that a negative answer is expected. If someone says he has faith but lacks the resulting evidential works, one must doubt that he has been saved. James is not implying that even genuine faith is the basis of salvation; rather, it is the means and instrument by which one is saved (see Ephesians 2:8-9.

Vv. 15-16 gives us an illustration of what faith without works looks like in everyday life. In itself the phrase “Go in peace, stay warm and be well fed” is a pious wish and prayer for the welfare of the poor, but in reality it is a cop-out, masking a refusal to help the person in need. The point of this illustration becomes clear in verse 17, faith without works is dead, it brings no results and cannot lead to salvation. There can be no true faith that fails to produce works (here seen as care for the poor, but including good works of all kinds).

An objector argues in vv..18-20 that faith and works are indeed separable, and James responds that faith can be shown only through righteous deeds. As was common in Hellenistic rhetoric, James introduces a hypothetical respondent into his discussion of faith and works, continuing his argument against those who think that faith can save without works. “God is one” – this affirmation of monotheism stems from the core Jewish creed called the Shema. But James stresses its inadequacy, since even the demons believe this, and they shudder. Mere mental assent to the Christian faith does not save anyone. The faith that saves, as both Paul and James affirm, embraces the truth of the gospel and acts accordingly.

James continues his rebuttal by citing the examples of Abraham and Rahab, who were both shown by their deeds to be righteous. On the surface James may seem to contradict Paul. I.e., Paul denies that Abraham was “justified by works” (Romans 4:2), arguing from Genesis 15:16 that Abraham’s faith “was counted to him as righteousness”. However, James’s assertion in this verse (that “Abraham [was] . . . justified by works”) is based not on Gen. 15:6 but on Gen. 22:9–10, where (many years later) Abraham began to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Thus James apparently has a different sense of the word “justify” in view here, as evidenced by the different Scripture passages, and the different events in Abraham’s life, to which James and Paul refer. The primary way in which Paul uses the word “justify” emphasizes the sense of being declared righteous by God through faith, on the basis of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, whereas the primary way that James uses the word “justify” here in James 2:21 seems to emphasize the way in which works demonstrate that someone has been justified, as evidenced by the good works that the person does. Some others hold a similar view, which understands “justify” here to mean to declare someone to be righteous because, at the final judgment, the person’s works give evidence of true saving faith.

“Complete” in verse 22 means “bring to maturity.” Full-grown and genuine faith is seen in the good deeds it produces. James 2:23 James uses Gen. 15:6 in a way that complements rather than contradicts Paul (Rom. 4:1–9; Gal. 3:6), for he sees it as having been fulfilled (see James 2:22) in Abraham’s offering of Isaac (Genesis 22). James centers on Abraham’s act of obedience while Paul centers on God’s declaration of Abraham’s righteousness. Abraham was called a friend of God, in contrast to those who have no acts of obedience to prove their claims to faith and are therefore seen to be friends of this world (James 4:4).

James again seems at first to contradict Paul’s teaching that one is justified by faith alone (Rom. 3:28), but the two are compatible. For James, “faith alone” means a bogus kind of faith, mere intellectual agreement without a genuine personal trust in Christ that bears fruit in one’s life. James, in agreement with Paul, argues that true faith is never alone, that it always produces works (cf. Eph. 2:10). James illustrates one last time that Rahab the prostitute believed the stories of God’s saving work for the Hebrews. So, at some personal risk, she hid the Jewish spies from her own people, then lowered them on a rope so they could escape. Thus she became a model of faith completed in works.